Cooper Burns is a winemaking partnership of Mark Cooper and Russell Burns, dedicated to producing tiny amounts of handcrafted, small batch, artisan wines from the Barossa Valley. Their aim is to make wines with soul, individuality and personality that express the qualities of the vineyard, vintage and passion that went in to making the wines. Mark and Russell met during vintage 2003 in California, where, being like-minded individuals, they struck up an immediate friendship. As the days and weeks of a Californian summer and fall went by, it become apparent that Mark and Russell had similar dreams for making their own handcrafted wine. A night of margaritas and tequila in Paso Robles saw the basic framework for Cooper Burns take shape. Details of that night remain hazy, but essentially revolved around low yielding super premium fruit from the Barossa Valley, traditional winemaking methods with minimal intervention and attention to detail, and a belief in what they wanted to do and achieve with the wines. After reaching an accord with their partners, Rachel and Tracy, (lots of begging, pleading, promises and a tantrum or two was required to reach this accord, mind you), it came to pass that Cooper Burns was up and running for vintage 2004.